Without seeking to justify cruelty per se, I think that the aging Secretary sadly forgot his role of leading and DEFENDING his troops with regard to the largely media-manufactured “prisoner abuse” issue.

Let the military prosecutors prosecute; the SECDEF needs to be in his troops’ corner when they are set upon by tmedia piranhas. My concern is: How many soldiers have been improperly prosecuted or have received overly harsh punishments for their “crimes” – both real and imagined?

MEMO TO THE SECDEF:

The problem, Mr. Secretary, is NOT that you have failed to prosecute our troops too little. The real problem, rather, is how you and your vermicelli-spined generals/admirals cravenly cowered before loathsome cads like Senator Kennedy and AP and NYT reporters who were out to attack our military and to render aid and comfort to the ENEMY.

Sir, you were SO quick to justify the brass that you scapegoated your own troops. Why did you not, instead, defend your troops tooth-and-nail – even offering to go down with them, if necessary?

Do you think that President Roosevelt’s Secretary of War was protesting to the media of his day about how he had prosecuted military members for abusing German and Japanese POWs?

Mr. Dumbsfeld, you should have looked Kennedy in the eye and scorned him for the seditionist he is . . . . You should have excoriated the asshat reporters who baited you with questions about “prisoner abuse.”

.. . . .But, you chose appeasement instead.

And what did it buy you? Your troops now know they cannot trust you in a pinch. I call for your resignation constantly. And Kennedy, AP, and the NYT STILL hate you!

Worst of all, if enemy prisoners now walk with a strut and wear a smirk on their faces in places like Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, it will have been – in large measure – YOUR fault.